Wednesday, February 17, 2010

In Which I Show You The House As It Currently Stands

Here's that picture-heavy house update as promised!

Just look at that beautiful fireplace! All of the stone went on today-- including a beautiful flagstone mantelpiece-- and the floors are now finished in the mudroom, bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, and library! All of the indoor light fixtures are in, and the mudroom bench is painted. The kitchen vent and Connor's ceiling are both primed and ready for their faux paint treatment. This is a very long, very picture heavy post, so I'm putting in a jump so it won't take forever to load. You can click on "read more" or on the title of the post to see all the pictures. I've included "before" shots so you can see just how amazing the transformation has been so far!

As an aside, please note that all of the furniture in the before shots is not mine, but the previous owner's furniture, as I took the pictures shortly before we closed on the house. While I freely admit that I am rather odd, I do not keep a display case full of gift boxes in my family room. Really, I swear.

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Before

After

Here's another shot of the living room, which I took after the guys were finished for the day. So far in here the sunken floor has been raised, new windows have gone in, custom wainscoting and window seats were built, a new fireplace profile was created, a gas fireplace was installed, new lighting was put in, the room was painted, laminate wood floors installed (currently covered up) and right now they're in the process of installing the stone on the fireplace. Wow!

Before

After

Here's the dining room, which was formerly the family room. The wood burning stove was removed, new windows and a new sliding door were installed, new lighting was put in, the laminate floors went down, and the room was painted. I believe this room is about finished.

Here's the master bedroom. New doorway, paint, built-ins, crown molding, window, lighting, and the beginnings of the new floor have been installed. Sorry about the different perspective, but to give you an idea of orientation the wall in the "after" picture that you are looking at is the wall that the head of the bed in the "before" picture would be against.

Before

After

A shot of the kitchen. This room has been so completely renovated I'm not sure I could list everything that's been done to it so far, but I think pictures speak louder than words in this case. To give you some perspective-- the sink and the dishwasher are in the same place in both pictures. Perhaps the most dramatic transformation in the house. Amazing!

Finally, while I don't seem to have a picture of the water heater that used to sit here (the new gas water heater has been moved to the garage, where it will no longer cause very loud gurgling noises to echo throughout the house whenever you turn on a faucet) here's that beautiful mud bench I told you about yesterday! Other changes so far to the laundry/mudroom include a new counter and utility sink, new floors, paint, window, pantry, entryway to kitchen, and zero threshold exit to the garage.

I didn't get good shots of Connor's room, the library, the master bathroom or the office today, so I'll save them for another day. Anyway, it's unbelievable how quickly the house is coming together, and if it looks this great now I can't wait to see what it's going to look like once it's finished!

The transformation is astounding! It looks like a totally different (and gorgeous) house! I love the pictures, because it is giving me some ideas for our dreadfully outdated (circa 1976) house. Harvest gold is starting to wear a bit thin, lol!

Incredible! And a real testament to the generosity and skill of the renovators. First things first, have you decided on an organizational scheme for the library? Just alphabetical order by author, or subdivided by genre and topic? I assume that the little cubbies under the (gorgeous!) mudroom bench are where the velociraptors will lay their eggs.

About The Author

I'm Connor's Mom. That pretty much explains everything. I mean, raising the epicenter of cuteness in the universe is tough, but it has its moments, all right.
I should probably mention that Connor has a submicroscopic, subtelomeric unbalanced translocation 46xy der t(1)(1;15)(q42;q26.2)-- an extremely rare chromosomal disorder. He keeps me on my toes!